Cogut Institute for the Humanities

Doctoral Certificate in Collaborative Humanities

Promoting forms of cross-disciplinary work and community oriented toward the most challenging questions facing humanities research today.

Collaboration is built through research practices dedicated to thinking together across disciplines and geographical locations. The program advances forms of inquiry through teaching models and student practices that experiment with group presentations, collaborative online discussions, co-authored seminar papers, and other forms of intellectual partnership. The doctoral certificate is part of the Institute’s Collaborative Humanities Initiative and is directed by Amanda Anderson.

Objectives

  • An expanded sense of intellectual community for doctoral students in the humanities and the humanistic social sciences.
  • An intensive form of interdisciplinary training, with emphasis on collaborative research, critical reflection on humanistic methods, and the development of collaborative skills.
  • A valuable and distinctive credential for graduate students to advance their professional careers.

87

doctoral students

enrolled in one or more collaborative humanities seminars in 2020–21

18

student home departments

were represented in 2021–22.

64

certificate recipients

as of December 2024

61

collaboratively taught seminars

between fall 2017 and spring 2025

64

Brown University faculty members

between fall 2017 and spring 2025

27

faculty home departments and programs

over the 2017–2025 academic years

Requirements

The Doctoral Certificate in Collaborative Humanities entails the completion of four courses and participation in the Collaborative Public Workshop, an event that concludes the program’s capstone seminar each spring. HMAN 2400-level seminars are open to all students at the same time as they fulfill a requirement of the certificate. 

Three HMAN 2400-level seminars must be completed for credit. These seminars are organized around a key interdisciplinary topic, with an emphasis on theoretical and methodological questions. Collaborations are built into the course requirements and may include group presentations, collaborative online discussions, co-authored seminar papers as well as other forms of intellectual partnership.

Courses in the HMAN 2400 series are open to all students at the same time as they fulfill a requirement of the certificate. The completion of two seminars in the HMAN 24*** series is a prerequisite to apply for enrollment in the certificate and the capstone Project Development Workshop.

Admission to the Certificate

Doctoral students can enroll in the certificate program at any point in time. Admissions are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Students interested in participating in the Project Development Workshop, taught each spring, must seek admission by the fall of the same academic year at the latest. Workshop participants who would like to be in residence at the institute and have desk space assigned to them should consider applying early as assignments are made on a first-come, first-served basis.

Applicants for the Cogut Collaborative Humanities Fellowship must also enroll in the certificate program before or at the same time as they submit the fellowship application materials in the spring. 

Apply for admission in the certificate program